No room in the inn (yet...)

Since vacating my first WH home about a week go, I began the process of collecting all my ships, gear and a shiny new medium POS in preparation of finding a bigger, meaner place to hang my head.

However, after several days of running a hi-sec scanning route around my base of operations I have so far been unable to find a new system that fits the Goldilocks criteria that I have set. Many WHs have been found, and many more inside those WHs also. However, the findings so far are pessimistic.

The main problem is that of existing occupancy within the WHs. Whilst I was expecting the majority of systems to be occupied, I am still startled by just how many are populated already. I was hoping that the deeper WHs, with perhaps no regular k-space exit, are less popular but the reverse seems to be the case. The likelihood of finding a vacant WH seems to be slim, so the prospect of finding a sub-system devoid of activity would therefore be even slimmer. This doesn't even take into account mass and time limits on the holes.

Perhaps the problem lies with my chosen base of operations, which is safely within the constraints of hi-sec. I recall reading the accounts of others that suggest that WHs found within low-sec systems are more likely to be unpopulated. This is certainly food for thought, though I don't warm to the thought of hauling all my worldly possessions into low-sec just yet.

To be fair, I've only been house-hunting for a short while so I guess I shouldn't get too despondent. I'll launch the probes some more over the next few days and cross my fingers that I can find a new home.

Winds of Change

With the Class 1 empty, save for a lone gravimetric site, I came to the decision that it was time to up sticks and find a new home. Also, I felt that a Class 1 no longer offered the challenges that I crave, not to mention the fact that the mass limits prohibited the ships that I could field. So last night I packed up the station, and hauled everything back to hi-sec in readiness for a move to a new home.

My time in the Class 1 taught a few valuable lessons that I will be putting to use in future ventures. Firstly, I will not be content with a 'shallow' WH, due to the traffic that a regular hi-sec exit entails. In an ideal world, I will be hunting for a deep Class 2 WH with a regular Class 2 exit.

The second change that I will be making is the upgrade in POS, from a small to a medium. Following the discussions on Star Defender's blog, I shall be setting up this POS, only on-lining the refining array when needed, temporarily switching off a couple of guns to meet the power-grid requirements.

Skill wise, I have been working on my gunnery skills, and plan to work on the BS side of things in the near future.

RL work commitments might limit the time I have this week to search for a new home, but I hope to have found a new home to report on my next post.

Die Another Day

I've been pleasantly surprised over the past few days at the respawn rate of signatures within my WH home. Perhaps I've just been fortunate, but new signatures appear at a quick enough rate given my play hours and speed with which I can clear them. A radar and ladar site popped up last night, in addition to the 2 grav belts that were already present.

I guess it's too early to draw any firm conclusions, but I'll be more than happy if the current respawn rate persists.

Home Alone

Another weekend in Eve.
As sure as night follows day, the signatures in my home system are nearly depleted - just a couple of grav belts left.
The final remaining combat site was cleared quickly last night, just leaving my mining crew with work to do.

With a couple of free days coming up, I can begin to contemplate what my next move will be. Sooner rather than later I will have to start moving my gear and structure out of home, in search of a new place to inhabit. I doubt I have the skills or isk to begin thinking of moving to a Class 2 WH just yet, so I'll shortly start the hunt for a deep Class 1.

For now though, I shall continue with the mining, and progressing through the skills that I feel will be necessary for a move to a higher class system.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Against all good advice, I began my WH colonization a short while ago with a small POS in a fairly depleted Class 1 system with a regular connection to hi-sec. In an ideal world, I would have began my burgeoning career in a system tucked far away from a hi-sec entry, that was brim full of rich pickings with the support of at least a medium tower.



Alas, financial and skill restrictions limited me to the situation I found myself in. Nonetheless, I felt confident that I could set up base and begin my career in this system if only for a few weeks before I found the need to pack-up and scout out a new home.



A few days in and already it's been a blast!



The Good: The sites that I've completed have proven to be largely profitable. I've ran around 10 combat sites thus far, acquiring enough melted nano-ribbons to pay for the initial up-keep and fuel requirements. Several magnetometric and ladar sites have also been fruitful, although my limited mining skills has restricted the potential profit that could be had from the many gravimetric sites that occupy the system.



The Bad: The hi-sec static WH does indeed lead to a lot of tourists and predators. Naturally, this acts to stifle any activity that I've been involved with, pushing down hourly profits. Furthermore, having only a small POS removes any possibility of processing any gas or ore that are harvested, making regular jumps to hi-sec a necessity. This situation was expected though, and makes me even more determined to push on with my future aspirations.



The Ugly: 2 days ago my system opened up to a very busy section of hi-sec. Summer had truly arrived as it seemed my system became packed with visitors. I scanned down 1 scanning frig and duly sent him home packing. However, a short while later I picked up on a retriever mining in one of the grav sigs. My carebear tendencies presented me with a tricky situation - do I let him be, happy to share the bountiful ore that was present in the system, or do I hunt him down in a show of resistance?
I opted for the latter, and duly dispatched the lone miner. However, as I was salvaging the remains, I myself became the prey for a group of hunters who treated me with the same disdain as I myself had shown the miner. My pod also failed to survive intact, and I awoke in a clone truly dazed.

Perhaps next time I should attempt peaceful negotiations with any lone miners in the system, happy to share the risk of being the victims of any rogue packs? Food for thought certainly, and I'd be very happy to hear from fellow WH pilots on their thought regarding miner tourists.

Credits

At this point I'd like to give reference and thanks to the blossoming Eve blogging community. My list of must-read blogs is growing at a furious pace, and now consumes a large part of my time!
In particular, I was inspired to start my own blog by the writing of Star Defender, who himself charts the life of a pilot in WH space.

Also, the blog list compiled by CrazyKinux has been a fantastic source of Eve Blogs, and would like to pass thanks to him for all his efforts.

I shall be adding further blogs of interest to my list as I continue through this journey, and look forward to sharing adventures with fellow capsuleers!

A new venture for this lone capsuleer

Hi and thanks for visiting this my virgin post on my very own blog charting the ventures into Eve wormhole space!

I'll start with the background as to how I arrived. I began playing the brilliant Eve Online shortly after the release of Apocrypha in March. Intrigued by the promises of adventure and fortune to be had within the mysterious Sleeper space, I began my training by cutting my teeth with low-sec exploration and null-sec alliance warfare. My first taste of WH space came about 2 months ago, when myself and a small band of brave souls entered forth into the uncharted space, and set-up camp.

Enthralled by the challenges posed, and the unpredictability of what each new dawn would bring, I realised that this was the life for me. Around this time, I became an avid reader of StarDefender's excellent blog (more about this later). Inspired by the tales and adventures that he would report from the reaches of WH space, I decided that I too should venture forth on my own two feet.

So a week ago, with trepidation and a heightened sense of well-placed fear, I took the plunge and invested in the operational set-up that I would require for my first colonization of a WH system. After a while spent scanning for a suitable first-time buyer home, I booted-up the industrial and moved in! A few days in, and it's already starting to feel like home....

In my next post, I hope to expand a bit about my current situation and set-up, whilst setting out a road-map (or should that be space-map?) for the future. To be continued ...